"We are in an elegant hotel particulier in the center of Paris. Renee, the building's concierge, is short, ugly, and plump. She has bunions on her feet. She is cantankerous and addicted to television soaps. Her only genuine attachment is to her cat, Leo. In short, she is everything society expects from a concierge at a bourgeois building in a posh Parisian neighborhood. But Renee has a secret: she is a ferocious autodidact who furtively devours art,...

Paloma, a bored eleven-year old who has decided to kill herself on her twelfth birthday, befriends her building's concierge and new neighbor who inspire her to change her pessimistic outlook on life.